As Zeke and Tora run around Fonsett Village they can't seem to find Morag anywhere. Due to this fact Zeke decides to ask one of the guards present where Morag ran off to.

Zeke waves at one of the guards to get their attention. "Oi you, do you know where Morag went? We can't seem to find her." Just as the guard is about to answer the question there is a huge spike in ether that can be felt all the way from where Zeke and Tora were searching. Zeke quickly looks over to Tora. "That can't be good."

Tora nods his head in agreement. "Friend Morag in trouble, must follow ether signature." Tora looks up at Poppi. "Poppi, trace ether signature and bring us to destination."

"On it. Follow me friends." Poppi begins to run out of the village with the other three people trailing behind her. As they continue to run the group finds themselves running in the direction of the entrance of the Spirit Crucible Elypse. Upon arrival they see Exodus standing over a body with a humongous axe that is covered in blood. Upon sensing their arrival Exodus tilts his head and turns towards the group. Facing them.

"So the back up did arrive after all." Exodus looks back at his handiwork and decides to step aside so the small group can see what he's done. When he moves over to the side and sits on a bench nearby Exodus unsummons his axe and just rests for a moment.

When the groups eyes turn to look at what Exodus has done the entire group gasps in horror at what is in front of them. Morag has been cut completely in half. The wound begins at Morag's left shoulder and it goes all the way down to her right forearm with all of the body in between also being cut diagonally. All of them run over to Morag and Zeke bends down and cradle Morag's head so that everyone else can get a better look at her. "Morag! Morag can you hear us?!" Zeke frantically asks. No response.

Tora begins to cry over the lost of their friend. "No, friend not suppose to end like this! Morag suppose to lead us! Who will lead Elysium now?!"

Zeke begins to cry lightly himself and begins to pull his sword out from his back ready to attack Exodus. "YOU! YOU DID THIS! YOU WILL PAY WITH YOUR LIFE!"

Exodus stands up and casually walks towards Zeke. As Zeke brings his sword up to slice him, Exodus grabs the blade with one arm and holds the weapon in place. "You have lost far too much ether to even phase me. Don't even try." Exodus then gives a brief sigh. "Besides, I have no need to fight you. I made a promise to the Empress that I would leave the people of this nation alone after our duel as a way of honoring the wishes of not a human, but of a warrior willing to put everything on the line to face an opponent she knew she didn't stand a chance against. For that she begrudgingly has my respect. I will not go back on her final wishes." Zeke still looks pissed regardless of what Exodus has spoken. So with that Exodus decides to take his leave.

Right before Exodus makes his exit he leaves some parting words on the group. "I will give you all one month to prepare yourselves for my next attack. Otherwise it wouldn't be fun at all to kick an enemy that is down. I look forward to seeing what you worms come up with. Until next time." With that Exodus teleports away from the group leaving them all there to focus back on Morag.

As the group continues to mourn the loss of their friend Zeke notices something very strange about this whole situation. Despite Morag being dead Brighid and Aegeon are still around and haven't gone back into their core crystals yet. Zeke thinks about this really hard for a moment and leans his head on Morag's chest as a confirmation for what he is hypothesizing. Upon lowering his head and concentrating really hard he hears a slow and very, very faint heart beat in Morag's chest. "H-how is that p-possible?"

Tora looks up to Zeke in confusion at his words. "What wrong Zeke?"

Zeke looks over to Tora with a look of complete bewilderment. "She's still alive. Morag's still alive!"

Tora looks over to Zeke with complete shock on his face. "But how that possible?! Friend Morag cut in half!"

"I don't know, but she looks like she might die for real very soon if we don't do something right now." Zeke thinks frantically for a moment before coming up with an idea. "I know how we can save her."

Tora looks over to Zeke with curious eyes. "Tell Tora now!"

Zeke looks over to Brighid and Aegeon. "Poppi I'm going to need you to drag those two over here right now."

Without a second thought Poppi grabs the two blades and places them near Zeke. "What Zeke planning to do with Brighid and Aegeon?"

Zeke has a grim expression on his face and looks downcast. "I'm going to turn Morag into a blade eater."

Tora, Poppi, and Pandoria all look at Zeke with wide eyes. "But how Zeke know how to do that?" Tora questions.

Zeke quickly replies with: "I was around Amalthus for enough time that he taught me how to turn a human into a blade eater." Zeke thinks back in sadness. "Probably the only good thing he did." Zeke suddenly looks upset. "Damn I wish Nia were here. Even if we do turn Morag into a blade eater we will still need to patch up all these wounds and Nia is the only person who can heal these sorts of wounds. Otherwise she would just bleed out anyways."

"How about Tora go get Nia from castle? Should be awake by now." Tora replies unknowingly.

Zeke's expression darkens even further. "Nia is currently knocked out. She can't wake up."

Poppi suddenly comes up with an idea. "Masterpon! Why not take ether out of teleporter and channel through Poppi? That can save Morag."

"But if we do that we all stranded here... but if it mean saving Morag's life." Tora doesn't take long to think about it and just begins running for the teleporter. "Come on Poppi. Must hurry as quickly as possible."

Poppi activates her engines and flies extremely quickly towards teleporters while picking up Tora in the process. "On it."

Zeke continues to listen carefully to make sure that Morag is still alive and silently prays for Tora and Poppi to come back as quickly as possible. After a minute the two return with Poppi's body glowing in bright blue veins which were a byproduct of absorbing Nia's ether. "Poppi, you're going to have too pour that ether on Morag's torso and arms to stop the bleeding and close up the flesh. Think you can manage?"

"Poppi can handle this." Poppi places her hands at the portion of Morag's torso which had been split up. As Poppi pours Nia's ether onto the wound the wound begins to slowly close up and new flesh forms at where the cut had been. Poppi then does the same thing to Morag's left arm which forms a stump at the shoulder and to her right arm where the arm stumps about halfway down the forearm. By the time Poppi is done the veins have disappeared from her body indicating that Poppi ran out of Nia's ether. "Wounds are fully healed."

Zeke looks relieved. "Thank goodness. The only thing left to do is the transplant the two core crystals and Morag should be safe."

Tora looks at Zeke confused. "But why need both core crystals? Why not one?"

Zeke answers back. "Because of the severity of Morag's wounds. At this point Morag would need a full core crystal in order to survive which would lead to the death of one of her blades. None of us want that to happen so the safer option would be to take a piece from both of Morag's blades and place them into her to not only save her life, but also insure that both Brighid and Aegeon live."

Tora after hearing that answer nods his head in understandment. "Tora see your point."

"Then I'm going to get to work right now." Tora and Poppi watch very closely while Pandoria tries to support Zeke as best she can. Zeke begins to take Morag's clothes off.

"Meh Meh Meh! What Zeke doing?!" Tora shouts in shock.

"I need to expose her skin so I can make the transfer. You can look away if it really bothers you that much." Zeke unbuttons Morag's clothes which exposes her abdomen and chest. Zeke leaves Morag's bra on as removing it would be unnecessary to this operation. Without looking over Zeke gives Pandoria instructions. "Pandoria, I need you to bring Brighid's body over here." Pandoria complies and places Brighid behind Zeke.

"Here she is." Pandoria informs Zeke.

"Thank you." Zeke then places his right hand on Brighid's core crystal and places his left hand just below Morag's throat. Zeke sits down and crosses his legs between the two and begins to focus. Zeke forces his ether into Brighid's body and begins the process of converting part of Brighid's core crystal into pure ether energy. The pain is immediately obvious as Brighid wakes up almost instantly from the sudden pain coursing through her entire being. Zeke quickly bites out at the other two blades present. "Pandoria! Poppi! You need to restrain Brighid right now!" The two blades immediately spring into action and Pandoria restrains Brighid's legs while Poppi restrains her arms.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!" Brighid shrieks in agony as her eyes shoot wide open from the pain.

"Pandy explain to her now." Zeke quickly comments.

"A part of your core crystal is currently being used to save Morag's life! We need it so that Morag can live!" Pandoria shouts at Brighid.

Brighid seems to restrain herself a lot more at these words as she now know's that Morag may die if she doesn't comply. "I'll... try... my... best... to... restrain... myself!" Brighid barely manages to get out.

As Zeke continues to pull more of Brighid's core crystal out a small trail of blood begins leaking from his mouth. The sheer volume of ether that is being conducted through his body is far greater than his body is capable of holding. 'She isn't the crown jewel of Mor Ardain for nothing.' Zeke thinks to himself. While all of this is happening their is a bright blue glow radiating off of the hand that is resting on Morag's chest.

"How... much... LONGER?!" Brighid cries out.

"Almost... DONE!" Zeke removes both hands and falls over in exhaustion while panting heavily. Seeing Zeke done, Poppi and Pandoria let go of Brighid who proceeds too curl into a ball facing away from the group as she grasps at her core crystal in pain. After a few minutes of the two recovering Brighid finally gets up and sees the state that Morag's body is in at the moment. A pained look adorns Brighid's face before settling and the faint blue glow radiating from Morag's chest. What lies there is the top half of Brighid's core crystal. Brighid looks down at her own core crystal and only sees the bottom half resting their now. Zeke finally sits up as well still looking exhausted with the blood that was at his lips beginning to dry.

"This transfer... was a success!" Zeke exclaims.

"Tora is relieved." Tora says with relief.

Poppi then comments on what she just witnessed. "So Zeke take ether from Brighid and place in Morag? Was Zeke being used as conductor?"

"Yeah something like that. I had to essentially tear at Brighid's core crystal via the ether and transport it through my body and then concentrate all of the ether into one specific part of Morag. Due to how powerful Brighid is as a blade she was a lot harder to transfer than most blades, but in the end it was a success." Zeke explains to Poppi.

Brighid closes her eyes and gives a slight bow to Zeke. "Thank you for saving my driver. I am eternally in your debt."

"Don't go thanking me yet. There's still one more transfer I have to do in order to save Morag's life." Zeke comments. "Tora I need you to go into the village and find the royal guards and have them call for a ship to come pick us up seeing as we can't use the teleporters at the moment. Be sure to ask for the ship to have a full medical bay on deck, we're going to need it."

"Righty-o, Tora get to it right now." With his instructions given to him, Tora makes his way towards Fonsett Village.

"Poppi I'm going to need you to bring Aegeon over here to where Brighid just was. I'm going to need you and Pandoria to restrain him like you did with Brighid." Zeke looks over to Brighid. "Brighid I'm going to need you to explain the situation to Aegeon when he wakes so that the transfer can go more smoothly."

Brighid nods her head. "Alright."

Poppi drags Aegeon's body to where Brighid just laid and begins restraining Aegeon's arms. Pandoria does the same to his legs in preparation. Zeke sits up straight and crosses his legs yet again. Zeke reaches his right hand out and places his hand on Aegeon's core crystal. Zeke reaches his left hand out and places his hand right above Morag's breasts. Zeke closes his eyes yet again and begins to focus his ether into Aegeon to begin forcefully pulling Aegeon's core crystal through his body in order to transfer the second core. Just as what happened with Brighid, Aegeon wakes up almost immediately upon feeling his core get forcefully ripped out of his body. However this time everyone was prepared and Aegeon was already restrained by the two other blades.

"WHAT IS THIS PAIN?!" Aegeon yells loudly.

Brighid begins to explain the situation to Aegeon. "Aegeon calm down. Zeke is transferring a portion of your core crystal into her Majesty in order to insure her survival."

Upon the clarification Aegeon relaxes slightly but still convulses from the feeling as if all of his ether was boiling. "Alright..." Aegeon grunts out.

After a few more minutes and after blood starts erupting from Zeke's eyes the process is complete. Zeke falls onto the ground panting heavily trying to wipe the blood out of his eyes. Yet again Pandoria and Poppi release Aegeon and Aegeon holds his hands at his core crystal in pain. After a few minutes pass Aegeon slowly gets up and joins Brighid to the side. This time Zeke doesn't get up and Pandoria walks over to him and pulls him up to his feet where Zeke buckles from the exhaustion of transferring two core crystals back to back. Zeke stares down at his handiwork. Just below the first core crystal was now the second core crystal that was from the bottom half of Aegeon's core crystal. Zeke looks over to Aegeon and sees that he is now missing the bottom half of his core crystal. "This has been... a success! Morag should be fine for now." Zeke announces to the group. Zeke turns his head towards Poppi. "Poppi, please button Morag's clothes back up for me please?"

Without saying a word Poppi leans down and buttons Morag's clothes back up and afterwards leans against a tree nearby. Aegeon gives a small bow to Zeke. "Thank you for saving my driver. I am eternally in your debt."

"Ah don't worry about it. I did it for one of my friends. There is no debt needed." Zeke waves Aegeon off.

Brighid looks at Morag sadly. "She'll never be able to fight again in the current state she's in. It makes me feel... sad."

"Not necessarily." Everyone turns their heads to see Tora returning.

Brighid looks at Tora with curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"Before that..." Tora turns his head to Zeke. "The ship will be here two hours from now."

"Good work chum. Now go back to what you were saying."

Tora turns his head back towards the rest of the group and begins. "Tora is an expert in creating artificial blades correct?"

Everyone looks at each other and then looks back at Tora. "That is correct you are." Brighid acknowledges.

"Well what if Tora build new limbs for Morag?"

Everyone looks shocked at this revelation and Aegeon is the first to ask. "Can it really be done?"

"Tora must admit that really have work cut out. Firstly, Morag missing several important organs like most of digestive system and part of lungs so Tora have to figure out how to build functional organs to replace old ones. Secondly, Morag missing all of legs and part of arms so Tora have to find way to make artificial limbs respond to Morag's movements and will. These problems Tora will have to ask Dadapon Tatazo to help with. However Tora confident that can create new working and fully functional body for Morag guaranteed!" Tora jumps around excitedly and flaps his wings.

Everyone looks hopefully at Tora and Brighid is the first to respond. "Thank you Tora. I think I can speak for both me and Aegeon when I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts."

Aegeon nods in confirmation.

"Friends very welcome. Tora will get to scheming and building once get back to castle."

Zeke finally stops leaning on Pandoria and begins to walk over to Morag's body. "Welp, no need waiting here for the ship to arrive. Let's head over to Rex and Nia's house. They probably wouldn't mind us staying their for a few hours." Zeke announces to the rest of the group as he hoists Morag onto his shoulder and has her right arm hanging from his back.

Poppi stops Zeke. "Does friend think that good idea? Wouldn't townspeople get freaked out seeing Morag's condition?"

Zeke just waves it off and keeps walking. "Ah it'll be fine. They'll only see her for an instant. They won't even realize until we're inside anyways."

Poppi gives a light sigh and puts her arms on her hips. "If friend say so."

As the group makes it to Rex and Nia's house they find that the door is locked. "Should've figured. Now where is that key? I know Rex left a spare somewhere." Zeke takes a minute to think about it and remembers what Rex said in the past. 'The spare is under a rock behind the house.' "Hey Tora, could you go get the spare key please? It's under a rock behind the house."

"Alrighty." Tora goes to look for the key. As he is looking for the key Zeke and the rest of them their begin to hear light whispers and murmurs around them.

'Looks like they've taken a look at Morag.' Zeke thinks sadly to himself. After another minute Tora returns with a key and unlocks the door. Everyone enters inside and Tora shuts the door behind them. Zeke plops Morag on the couch and Pandoria turns a light on to illuminate the room. Zeke and Pandoria both take a seat at the kitchen table while Brighid and Aegeon sit on the couch to look after their driver. Poppi turns back into her alpha mode while her and Tora make their way to the kitchen table to sit along with Zeke and Pandoria. The atmosphere is tense as the group waits for the ship to arrive to pick them all up.

Rex suddenly jolts awake in a panic. He breathes heavily and he can feel a trickle of sweat dripping down his brow. He frantically scans looks around trying to identify where he is. 'Breathe Rex, breathe.' Rex internally thinks. After calming down Rex scans the room with his eyes and realizes he's in a hospital like room. "What happened?" Rex asks no one in particular. As Rex tries to lift up his arm to wipe the sweat away from his face he realizes that his arm isn't reaching his face. When Rex looks over to his right arm he falls back onto his bed in shock when he realizes that he's missing his right arm. "What the hell DID happen?" Rex frantically wracks his brain trying to remember what happened before he blacked out.

'Me, Zeke, Pandoria, and Nia were all fighting Exodus atop the cliffs that were near the city.' Rex begins thinking back to that fight. 'Exodus cut my arm off...' Rex wiggles his stump as he thinks this. '... and then Exodus used some sort of technique that changed the shape of his blade. Oh what was that called? Blade... changing? No that can't be right. Blade... shifting! He used a technique called Blade Shifting to change his blade into two giant doors.' Rex tries to pound his left hand into his right palm but forgets about his lack of a right arm. 'Then...' Rex gasps. "NIA! Where's Nia?!" Rex gets out of bed and finds her sword waiting at his bedside and picks it up with his left hand before sheathing it behind his back. Rex runs towards the exit to look for anyone who could give him directions. Rex finds a guard just outside his hospital room and quickly asks him. "Do you know where their keeping Nia?!"

The guard looks at Rex a bit odd but answers. "Yes I do. She's being held in the ICU at the moment. She's in critical condition."

Rex then asks the guard. "How do I get their?"

Once the guard gives Rex the directions he is looking for Rex immediately runs off in the direction of where Nia is being held and prays that she will be ok. When Rex arrives he sees the white doors on the emergency room and for an instant Rex recoils a bit as the mental image of "Gates of Heaven" appears in his mind. Shaking his head Rex opens the doors and is greeted with a white room completely void of any other colors. At the center of the room was a bed where Nia was sleeping in. As Rex approached Nia he notices how charred and cracked her flesh was from that attack. He sees a breathing mask attached to her face and he can hear the loud noises of the breathing machine she is currently hooked up to which lays at the left of her bed. Rex looks over to the right side of her bed and sees a heart monitor slowly beeping indicating Nia's heart beat. Rex stares as Nia's core crystal which is faintly glimmering and stirring around sluggishly.

Rex collapses into a nearby seat that was more than likely put their for guests. Rex leans his head down and mournfully weeps for the state Nia's body is in. Rex could no longer contain it once he saw how injured his love was. "I've... failed to... protect you again..." Rex sobs out. Rex pulls his chair closer to Nia's bed and rests his head on the side of the bed while he reaches over and lightly grabs her hands. Rex suddenly looks up with a tear stained face as he feels something shift. What he sees is that Nia is slightly holding his hand back. Despite being unconscious Nia still managed to hold his hand subconsciously. "I'm so... sorry... so... so... sorry..." Rex whispers out to no one. Rex stays seated their expending the rest of his tears for a good twenty minutes before finally deciding to have the courage to reads Nia's medical report which was on a clipboard at the foot of the bed in a tray. When he pulls the clipboard out he sits back down next too Nia as he reads it over. Rex's eyes go wide at what the reports say.

'Patient Nia is suffering from fourth degree burns around the entire body which is causing major damage. All the moisture within the patients body has seemingly evaporated short of blood which has been majorly damaged. Patient is suffering from multiple organ failures and due to all of these injuries has been sent into a coma. Patient is additionally suffering from ether exhaustion. Recovery time unknown. Although these chances would normally lead to instant death for any other patient Nia seems to be different due to her unique properties as a flesh eater and a healer. She has managed to cling to life despite her injuries. Possible Recovery: If someone can jumpstart patient Nia's ether then their is a good chance that Nia's own ether will heal the rest of her wounds albeit at a slower rate. More than likely requires a large amount of ether from her driver.'

Rex feels around for his own ether and finds that his ether is only half way back up. As much as it pains Rex he knows that he cannot help Nia right now. He has to first fully recover his ether or else jumpstarting her ether will be impossible. With that in mind Rex returns the clipboard back to where it once was and sits back in the chair near Nia and goes back to just silently holding onto her hand while laying his head back on the side of the bed.

Back at Rex and Nia's house the group over their had just been holed up their until the ship arrived. During that time Brighid and Aegeon both explained what happened during the fight against Exodus to the rest of the group which listened closely to what transpired between them. The group was sent on edge when Brighid and Aegeon revealed the true nature of Exodus' fourth ring. During that time Tora had been working on blueprints and idea's for potential designs and functions for Morag's new limbs which had mechanical jargon all over it that only Poppi could understand. Another thing that happened during this time was Tora calling his father via Rex's communicator and telling him to meet them at the palace in a few hours for a 'special project'. Tora gave him permission to use the teleporter in Torigoth to get to them as quickly as possible. Eventually the ship did arrive and in grand fashion as it was Morag's own royal vessel which was larger than some of the islands that were around Leftharia. Dozens of guards march out of the entrance of the ship and waited for their leader to triumphantly return.

The shock they had on their faces at seeing Morag as just half a torso, half an arm, and a head completely floored all of them. They all looked unsure of themselves as they tried their best to not step out of line. As the group gets on the ship Zeke brings Morag's body to the medical bay and leaves her there to rest while the attendants their hook Morag up with proper breathing equipment to help compensate for the pieces of lungs that she is missing as well as hook up a feeding bag and waste bag to help Morag eat properly. Everyone disperses throughout the ship except Brighid and Aegeon who stay by Morag's side for the entire ride back to Alba Cavanich.

Rex suddenly gets jolted awake by something off to his side and looks over to see Dromarch sitting right next to him. 'Must've fallen asleep.' Rex thinks to himself.

"Rex, what happened to my lady?" Dromarch harshly asks Rex.

Rex looks over to Nia and looks downcast. "It all happened so fast." Rex pauses and Dromarch waits for Rex to elaborate. "The Exodus we fought was a fake. Halfway through the fight the fake Exodus turned his weapon into a giant gate that could shoot light out of it. Nia was too close to erect a barrier or cast healing ether in time and ended up in the state she's in right now." Rex looks down at his one hand and clenches it in anger at himself. "She was too far away... I couldn't reach her in time. I've... broken my promise again." Just when Rex thought he couldn't cry anymore a few lone tears fell from his face.

Dromarch looked back at his driver and sighed. "Do you know how long she'll be like this?"

Rex looks towards Dromarch and gives him a sad look. "According to the reports I would have to jumpstart her ether by pouring nearly all of my ether into her since I'm technically her driver. The only problem is my ether reserves are currently..." Rex focuses for a moment to update how much he has at that moment. "...only at seventy five percent."

"Is ether all you need?" Dromarch questions.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Rex asks back.

"Rex, I would be willing to top off your ether right now if you'd want." Dromarch offers to Rex.

"Then let's do it." Rex says without a second thought.

"Rex put your hand upon my head and I shall give you my ether."

Rex places his hand on Dromarch's head and immediately feels the ether flow into him. After a few minutes Dromarch stops. "There that should be enough."

Rex feels rejuvenated upon the ether entering his body. "Thanks Dromarch." Rex then stands up and reaches his hand out above Nia and closes his eyes. Rex then forces as much ether out of his body as quickly as possible. Due to this action Rex ends up releasing so much ether at once that the ether becomes tangible from how large of a concentration it is. After twenty seconds of doing this nonstop Rex collapses back into his chair with exhaustion and begins to feel nauseated. Rex pulls himself up so he can see if it worked. Nia's body seemed to be absorbing all of Rex's ether and while this is happening Nia's heart monitor began beeping uncontrollably. Once Nia's body absorbed all the ether the heart monitor went back to its normal pace and everything seemed normal. However Rex and Dromarch could both sense it. Nia's ether has been reactivated.

"Now we wait." Dromarch states.

For a few minutes the two just sit in silence before Rex breaks the silence. "I'm assuming we won?"

Dromarch looks over to Rex and gives a looks of content. "The blade army is no more. Mikhail really knows how to hold his own. He fought harder than anyone else on the field."

"Really? Mikhail fought them too?" Rex thinks back on the goofy blade eater. "I guess the man can really get serious when he needs to."

Suddenly a guard bursts through the door. "Sir Rex, Sir Dromarch, her Highness has just returned and she's in poor condition. Sir Zeke sent me to retrieve you if you were awake. Will you come with?"

Rex looks over to Nia in worry but decides that he needs to see what happened to Morag if she's in as bad a condition as Nia was in. "Alright take me to her." Rex gets up and follows the guard with Dromarch not far behind. After walking for a little bit and going through an elevator the guard leaves Rex and Dromarch in front of a highly decorated door and tells them that Morag is inside along with the rest of his friends. As Rex enters the room he notices that everyone else is their waiting for him and even Mikhail arrived before them. They all look over to Rex and Dromarch and notice the Rex doesn't have his right arm. Rex ignores them for a moment and looks at Morag who is currently laying in bed covered up to her neck by a blanket with an oxygen mask over her face to help her breathe better. "What happened to Morag?"

Zeke motions Rex over to him. Rex complies. "Take a look for yourself chum." Zeke motions towards Morag's sheets. Rex looks at Zeke in confusion but complies. Rex lifts his hand up to the top of the sheet and grabs it.

"Are you sure about this?" Rex asks in concern.

Zeke wordlessly nods his head in confirmation. Rex pulls the sheet down to see what's beneath and what he sees makes him gasp loudly.

"How did this happen?!" Rex asks towards Brighid and Aegeon.

"Her Majesty decided to fight the true Exodus on her own. She never stood a chance one on one against him yet she still fought him anyways to buy time for the people of Fonsett Village to escape." Brighid sadly remarks.

"Her Majesty sacrificed so much just to insure that the people would be safe." Aegeon continues.

"What about you Rex? What happened to your arm?" Brighid asks Rex.

Rex looks over to his stub then back to Brighid. "The fake Exodus caught me off guard and sliced my arm off. My arm then got vaporized before Nia could reattach it. Even Nia can't heal what no longer exists." Rex comments sadly.

Tora then breaks out into a cold sweat. "Wait. Nia able to reattach limbs if they still their?"

Rex looks over to Tora with a puzzled look on his face. "That is correct. Why do you ask?"

Tora then walks over to a nearby nightstand and bangs his head into it. "Darn! If Tora known that then Morag might've had limbs saved. Darn! Darn! Darn!" Tora slams his head into the nightstand with each word.

Suddenly everyone goes quiet as they hear something very familiar. Everyone turns their heads towards the bed as they hear the light rustling of sheets. What the group comes to see is Morag slightly stirring. Everyone crowds around Morag as she stirs more and Morag tries to reach up for the sheets but comes to the realization that she can't grab the sheets. Morag turns over to lay flatly on her back and then slowly open her eyes. What she is greeted with is the sight of all of her closest friends all surrounding her with concern in their eyes. Morag tries to get up but finds that she can't. Morag looks down at her hands but realizes that she doesn't have any hands. She tries to move her legs to get out of bed but soon realizes that those are gone as well. Morag tries her best to look at the rest of her body but realizes that she in missing more than half of her body.

"I wasn't expecting to still be alive, if I were to be completely honest." Morag weakly states.

Suddenly everyone huddles around her and tries to give Morag a hug. "Morag! You're still alive!" Rex exclaims.

"We really thought you were a gonner there." Zeke follows up. "But Morag chum, I must know how you were able to keep your heart beating for so long. No normal person would survive what happened to you."

Morag is surprised by these words and tries to think back to what happened. She suddenly remembers what happened. "This is just conjecture on what happened, but what I think happened was right as Exodus was coming down on me with a killing blow my body subconsciously forced some of my ether to be stored in my heart as a survival mechanism to keep my body alive for just a little bit longer. I'd have to assume that my ether control played a large part in my survival." Morag pauses for a moment. "Although I can say with absolute confidence that I did in fact die during that fight."

"Why do you say that if you're still alive right now?" Rex questions.

"I could feel myself die and it felt like I was being pulled into the afterlife, yet it also felt as if my very soul was chained to my body. It was a very strange feeling." Morag then looks at them all in confusion. "Out of curiosity how did I survive? Even with my survival mechanism I doubt I would've survived for much longer after that."

"That because Zeke turn Morag into Blade Eater." Tora replies.

Morag shoots her eyes over to her two blades and looks at their core crystals to see that they were both missing a piece of their core crystals. Morag then turns her head over to Zeke who just gives her a half smile. "I thank you Zeke. There is truly no way I could ever repay you for what you've done." Morag tries her best to offer a bow despite the physical limitations.

"It's fine really. If I could I'd do it for any of you. Although don't go getting life threatening injuries on purpose just to get a power boost ya hear?" Zeke tries to joke in this situation.

"Not like I can make use of it considering the state I'm in." Morag sadly murmurs.

Tora interjects at this. "Actually Morag, Tora have brilliant idea." Morag turns her head over to Tora to listen to what he has to say. "Tora build you artificial limbs with collaboration from Dadapon Tatazo. That way Morag won't suffer from life altering debilitations."

"That would be quite helpful. I thank you as well Tora for being so kind as to do that for me." Morag shows her gratitude to Tora.

"Oh it fine, Tora not have much experience with artificial limbs so Morag going to have to be guinea pig for new breakthroughs." Tora looks apologetic.

"Well I guess it can't be helped considering the situation we're in." Morag waves her right stump. "I see we're missing someone from our group." Morag looks towards Rex. "Rex, where is Nia?"

Rex looks down for a moment before straightening up and looking serious. "Nia is suffering from having her entire body covered in fourth degree burns which has shut down most of her organs and has currently put her in a coma. The only reason she survived was because of her innate healing ability keeping her from dying." Everyone present is shocked at the news.

"Will she be alright?" Morag asks with worry.

"She should be in time. Just before I got here Dromarch gave me some of his ether to fill my ether back up to full so I could pour all of my ether into Nia all at once to jumpstart her ether as that shut down as well. This means her healing should begin to take effect and slowly heal her body back to healthy. As for getting out of the coma I'm not so sure. My guess would be soon after she fully recovers." Rex explains to all of them.

"My condolences to the both of you." Morag quietly responds. "Speaking of which, what happened to your arm Rex?"

Rex looks over to his own stump and waves it at Morag. "Oh this? I got it from our fight against the fake Exodus. Speaking of which their is something extremely important that you must know. We learned about it from our fight with the fake Exodus."

Morag perks her head up and listens closely. "What did you learn?"

"During our fight against him he used a technique that none of us have ever seen before. It was extremely powerful and was the reason that me and Nia are in the state we're in right now. The fake Exodus dropped his sword into the ground and it disappeared. What formed afterwards was a giant gate in the sky which he called the 'Gates of Heaven'."

Morag recalls seeing the gates from her palace when they first activated. "Tell me more about this technique."

"He stated that the technique is the pinnacle of the use of a blade as the driver and blade become one and the blade takes on an evolution into an even stronger form. He called the technique 'Blade Shift'."

"Becoming one with our blades?" Morag asks out loud to no one.

"It would seem that we still have plenty to learn." Zeke comments.

"It would appear that way." Rex replies.

Several hours later the group disperses to their own rooms for the night and Morag continue's to lay in bed and close her eyes. Brighid and Aegeon both just sit besides Morag's bed to look after her. Suddenly their is a quiet knock on the door. Morag opens her eyes and looks towards the door. "You may enter." Morag is surprised to see who it was. "Niall? Is that you?"

Niall opens the door fully and looks at Morag sadly. "It is me, your Majesty. I have come to see you."

Morag slightly grimaces at being called that. "You are my dear brother, you may use my real name if you wish."

Niall slowly walks to the side of Morag's bed. "It's quite funny how the tables have turned. I used to be the one saying the same thing to y-" Niall can't finish his sentence as tears begin to fall down from his eyes and his voice gets caught in his throat.

Morag looks up to Niall with a look of worry. "Niall? What is wro-" Morag can't finish her sentence as Niall desperately hugs Morag tightly and lightly sobs into her shoulder.

"Today I thought I lost my dear sister. I'm just so happy that you're still alive. The Architect has truly blessed you on this day." Niall manages to sob out as he continues to hug his sister.

Morag uses her right stump to somewhat rub the back of Niall back in an effort to calm him down. "It's ok Niall, I only did what I did in an attempt to save our people. You did the same thing at one point as well did you not?" Morag thinks back to that time.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make this right now any less impactful." Niall responds. "I'm sorry for not coming in earlier. I just thought you would want a moment with all of your friends." Niall explains.

"It is quite all right. You are still my brother and I wouldn't have minded if you had joined us earlier, but I am glad to have this moment with you now." Morag responds.

"As same to you." Niall replies. "If you don't mind me asking, what has happened since you left?" Niall asks with curiosity as he wants to know more of what has happened to Morag and her group during the battle.

Morag looks at Niall with sad eyes for a moment before going into a calmer state before speaking. "Well, it is a long story."

to be continued...

Authors Notes: Another chapter done. I'm going to be honest, I might have to take a break for a few days because my hand is starting to get some killer cramps from the sheer volume of words I've written in the past week. After my hand heals up again I'll get right onto chapter 38 as their is some really big things I have planned that will be occurring within the next few chapters. Anyways what did you all think of this chapter? Let me know. As always this is Exile Mansion signing off.